


Every Kid's Gotta Grow Up Sometime

by greatbriton



Category: Marvel Ultimates
Genre: Gen, anthony the tumor, tumor!anthony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-03-10
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatbriton/pseuds/greatbriton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony goes into battle.  Anthony, his tumor, isn’t feeling up to it.  Spoilers up to Ultimate Comics: Ultimates #22</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Kid's Gotta Grow Up Sometime

“Tony, what’s your ETA? This is getting messy and we need some firepower.”

“Don’t worry, Commander Chang. I will be dropping in on the party momentarily.”

Zipping along the tree line at this speed should mean he’d be within sight of the clash any second. He surveyed the skyline and then the ground beneath him, even though he was confident his armor would let him know if anything was incoming. 

“Tony.”

He gave a small start in surprise and looking vacantly ahead, Tony felt Anthony on his back. The young boy easily holding onto his armor and riding along with the winds whipping his hair and dark jacket chaotically around him. 

“Yeah? What’s up?”

Anthony leaned down so Tony could see his face. The tight frown on his small lips and dark bags under his youthful eyes made Tony feel uneasy. “I don’t think we should do this.”

“What do you mean? We’re almost there. There’s nothing that’s going to go wrong. It’s just a bunch of Hydra jerks.”

Anthony shook his head. “I’m not sure I feel up to it today, Tony.”

The armor came alive as the battle ahead came within range of its sensors. Readouts and quick lines of information laid out in front of Tony’s vision. Tony could see smoke billowing beyond the HUD. He spotted Thor in the sky knocking down jets with strikes of lightning and brute force. 

“Uh… hold on tight, Anthony. We’ll be in and out and then you can get some rest, okay.” 

“Tony.” Anthony’s voice sounded tired but Tony couldn’t fix that right then. He had to help the SHIELD agents who had been ambushed and he had to help Thor. 

He approached the battle with his usual restraint. Loudly shooting any enemy that moved with his repulsors while flying into the middle of the fray. Thor bellowed a welcome at him after Tony knocked the feet out from under a man firing at Thor from the ground. 

“I was beginning to wonder if you were leaving me to deal with these fools on my own.” Thor smiled, twirling his axe over head before swinging it downward, creating an arc of lighting that ripped a helicopter in two from a couple hundred feet away. 

“Never, big guy.” 

A blast smashed into him from behind, bringing Tony to the ground before he could recover. Thor noticed his fall but quickly came under fire from the same weapon that had knocked Tony down. Shielding himself from the heavy artillery, Thor was unable to provide any offensive help. Tony pushed himself to his feet and his armor immediately found the source of firepower. What he could tell there were two large modified AA gun systems that packed one hell of a punch. It seemed automated but had plenty of ground defense in the form of manpower. 

“Tony,” Thor shouted down at him. 

“I know!” Tony lifted off and was immediately set upon by the gun system again. He was prepared for the hit this time and got knocked back a few yards. “I’m on it!” Now he just had to figure out how exactly he was on it. 

“Tony. Can we go home?” Anthony was on his shoulder, looking pale. 

“Not now, Anthony,” Tony shooed him away then thought better of it. “No, wait. Anthony. I need you to hack into the system these weapons are on and shut them down.”

“I don’t want to.”

“This is important, you understand. You get this done and we can go home.”

“You promise?”

“Yes, I promise. We can watch some more cartoons.” 

Tony didn’t get an answer but Anthony hadn’t let him down yet so he was sure the kid was doing his best. He worried for a moment about what was wrong with Anthony before another blast crashed into his armor. Thor was suddenly at his back, providing support so Tony could stabilize himself. 

“We must disable these weapons quickly,” Thor had a concerned frown drawing all his features into hard lines. “If we go to ground they’ll have the advantage.”

“I told you that I’m on it,” Tony answered in a tone that conveyed his stress. Thor didn’t react but instead turned to put his back to Tony’s as more shots came in from that direction. 

Tony felt cornered and he didn’t like but he supposed Thor didn’t care for it either. He put more power into his shields and tried to use it to cover both himself and Thor as more blasts reigned down on them. 

“Anthony!” There was no answer. “Anthony! I need those guns offline!”

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Anthony said through his intercom. 

“What?”

“I’m sorry. I tried,” Anthony said in a desperate voice. “Don’t be mad at me.”

“It’s okay,” Tony tried to sound like it was okay. “It’s okay. We’ll just have to get to the guns the old fashioned way.”

“No, Tony. I wasn’t talking about the guns. I didn’t want to grow bigger.”

“Wha--” Tony convulsed as pain erupted inside his skull. He cried out and clutched at his head, which lowered the shield he had set up. Thor turned so quick he must have thought Tony had taken a critical hit. 

“Tony!” Thor called out but Tony couldn’t hear him over the roaring and thundering in his head.

Then it was as if everything had disappeared and it was quiet. Quiet like he were underground with nothing surrounding him but earth. It was dark too but Tony suddenly didn’t care because it was relief. Anthony was there with him in the dark. He smiled sadly as if asking for forgiveness but Tony couldn’t think of what he would need forgiveness for. Anthony hadn’t let him down yet. 

“I tried, Tony,” Anthony said. 

Tony shook his head and smiled. “I know you did.”

Whiplash as Tony crashed into the ground and he could feel again. Oh he wished he couldn’t. He felt cold. Felt like his head was split open but he couldn’t work up the strength to check. There was a warm liquid on his lips. It touched his tongue and it was blood. Above him was Thor with light and power shooting from him as if he were possessed by a being more bloodthirsty than Thor. Tony had seen it before. When Thor was seeking vengeance for his family. 

“Tony, what is going on down there?” 

Monica Chang. She sounded concerned. 

……

“Tony?”

………

Speaking was too much. Listening was too much. He could only watch Thor battle in the sky. It seemed he was coming closer now. 

“I’m sorry, Tony.”

…………

“Tony, get your ass on the radio. I need to know what is going on down there.”

……………

“I got you, Tony.”

He was being lifted by Thor’s strong arms like he were a sack of potatoes but he wouldn’t complain because they were still being fired upon. He heard the pangs of bullets hitting his armor and warning lights flashed in his eyes, making it harder to focus. 

“I’m sorry,” Tony mumbled, not sure if Thor heard him and he wanted to repeat himself but the words wouldn’t come. They were stuck in his throat or maybe stuck in his head. Thor powered up his weapon and then a brilliant light signified their traveling. 

A rooftop a few miles away probably. Tony couldn’t make sense of what his armor was trying to tell him. Anthony wasn’t around. He could ask Thor but he couldn’t. He was growing frustrated that he wouldn’t speak. 

“Tony, are you alright,” Thor’s voice was soft and worried. He was gentle when he laid Tony down and as gentle as he could be when he pried the faceplate of his armor open. Thor frowned as soon as he met Tony’s eyes. He reached down and wiped blood from where it had run from Tony’s nose and over his lips. “What happened? Your condition?”

Tony opened his mouth but nothing came out. He couldn’t find the words. Words had always come easy to him and now they weren’t there. Thor’s face fell further when he realized Tony was trying to communicate but couldn’t. 

“Time for a doctor.”

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Anthony was crying off to the side behind Thor but Tony couldn’t see him. “I guess it was time I grew up, huh?”

\-----------------------


End file.
